Tag: Blanding’s Turtle

The late-winter wait for spring can be almost painful. Enough of cold, snow and hibernating wildlife. When can I go outside without a jacket? Disappearing snow, robins on the lawn might be enough for some, but not for me.

Then finally…Yes! I hear it. rrrrRRRRT, rrrrRRRRT, rrrrRRRRT! The Presqu’ile Provincial Park pannes have come through once again with my first real sign of spring – the calling of the Western Chorus Frogs.

In today’s post, Brad Steinberg, our Natural Heritage Education & Learning Coordinator, shares the story of how he (kinda) proposed to a Blanding’s turtle.

It was September 30, the last day of trout season in Algonquin Provincial Park. I was trudging out a portage with a canoe over my head when I saw it: a big, beautiful Blanding’s turtle, perched right on the edge of the old roadway.

The next time you visit your favourite Ontario provincial park, be on the lookout for one of our most threatened “umbrella” species, the iconic Blanding’s turtle.

This hard-working, helmet-shaped, eco-soldier does more than walk through wetlands searching for food. Its very existence, ergo conservation, helps a variety of other species and ecosystems survive and thrive. This “pay-it-forward” sort of interdependence is what makes the Blanding’s turtle so important in Ontario.